Happy New Year!

Hello family and friends!

I just got back to site two weeks ago from a wonderful month of travel!  The whole trip started with a stop in Tses.  I left site on Friday (Nov. 30^th) with my supervisor and headed to Tses (pronounced like the game chess) for the night to see my friend Sachi’s site.  We had a great time hanging out and I really enjoyed getting to see where she works and lives.  Tses is only an hour north of Keetmans just off the B1, so I hope to visit again.  Our afternoon was spent with me cutting her hair!  She’s a brave girl b/c I have only really cut my hair once and had NEVER cut someone else’s before.  Later on we climbed some sand dunes near her school, cooked dinner, hung out with some of her learners (what they call students here), and enjoyed some of the homemade chocolate chip cookies I received in a package from the states (Thanks Aunt Di!).

Saturday morning we headed up to Windhoek.  We got a free ride with a very nice man driving a combi (a minivan used like a bus for transport).  He offered us cool drinks (which is usually soda, but can be any beverage that is cold) and dropped us off right at the door to the PC office where we were staying the night.  After getting caught in my first downpour in Africa, hail included, we checked out the Namibian National Museum.  We always take advantage of the nice restaurants when we go and that night we had sushi!  I was also fortunate enough to see a movie in theaters on Sunday, which is something I never expected to do while in Africa.

Week 1:

Me as Anwar

On Sunday afternoon we headed, out of the city center about 25km, to Greiters the hotel/conference center where reconnect was held.  Reconnect takes place after your first two to three months at site.  It is like training, but has more volunteer participation in the sessions.  During sessions we had the opportunity to hear about everyone’s challenges at site, the work they did and plan to do, and general day to day integration approaches... Outside of sessions we heard many stories about hut living, snake encounters, power outages, and more!  It was really great to see everyone again.  Evenings were spent playing games, enjoying the pool, and watching movies.  We also had a doppelganger party and did superlatives.  My superlative was ‘best doppelganger.'

Week 2:

We left reconnect and headed up to Khorixas with Steve for a collaboration week.  For a couple of nights we stayed with Grace, a health volunteer, at the hospital and enjoyed seeing the benefits of living in a town!  They have a petrol station, a nice store with about 10 more aisles than Bronco (the store in Aroab), a post office, a Pep (like a teeny-tiny Wal-Mart), a bank, and at least two lodges.  On our first day we went out to Sorri-Sorris (100 or so Km outside of Khorixas) one of the many conservancies Steve gets to work with.  The name came from a Khoekhoe phrase ‘abundance of sunlight.’  Conservancies are developed to support and promote public awareness, community involvement, natural resource preservation, and more.  This office, among other things, monitors the wildlife count and offers licenses for all hunting in the area.  They had a viewing platform with information about the area’s history and are also in the process of setting up some stalls for SMEs to come and sell their products or services to visitors.  That evening we went to dinner at a nearby lodge and got to meet another volunteer and her parents.  It was really neat to hear their perspective of Namibia and their daughters work… and of course their accents!  It’s a treat to hear a real American accent that has not been corrupted by Namlish :)

Us with our wonderful host!  (Laurel, Me, Steve, and Sachi)

The second half of our week with Steve was spent camping in the Aba Hauab Valley.  The highlight of the trip was the Damara Living Museum.  When you enter the (outdoor) museum you are met by a guide who takes you through and describes everything.  We heard about the different types of plants they collect and what they use them for.  They played a game (similar to Mancala) that the chiefs would play to see who was right when there was a disagreement and showed us how they make beads from ostrich shells.  Then we saw how they light fires.  Apparently you are not allowed to marry until you can hunt and start a fire.  Once a fire is lit you dance and sing to celebrate.  I was very impressed by this museum because it was developed and is mostly run by a local from the nearby village.

The chiefs game

Ostrich egg shell beads and the tool used to create the whole in the center

Some of the other sites we saw were Burnt Mountain, the Organ Pipes, the Petrified Forest, and Twyfelfontein.  Burnt mountain gets its name from the volcanic rock at its base.  The organ pipes were pretty interesting and I know that I would not do it justice telling you how they were formed so here is what I got online (http://www.namibia-1on1.com/organ-pipes.html):

‘As the molten rock pushed up through the earth’s surface it began to cool from the outer edges of the intrusion – inwards.  The movement of the remaining innermost magma was restricted to ‘vertical movement only.’  As it cooled and contracted the rock split vertically forming columns that have polygonal cross sections in accordance with geometric law.  The resulting formation leaves no voids between the columns.’

Organ Pipes

Twyfelfontein has rock engravings dating back at least 6,000 years.  They have found over 2,500 engravings in the area.  Most of the engravings (if not all of the ones that we saw) were of animals that could be found in the area at that time.  They were used as hunting guides and indicators of which animals were dangerous.  At the Petrified Forest you could see the bark on the trees and where the branches broke off.  It’s interesting to see such large trees in the middle of the dessert.  They are believed to have come down during a flood about 260 million years ago.

Rock engravings

Petrified Forest

Unfortunately, the closest I got to seeing a dessert elephant were the many road signs for elephant crossings and several knocked over fences that were the product of an elephant passing through.

Week 3:

During this week we rented a car and travelled to the Naukluft Mountains and Sossusvlei.  It was definitely a fun and interesting week.  The trip started off with us seeing zebras on our way to Naukluft park then realizing we had gotten a flat tire on the dirt road (that was my first flat tire experience!).  We were in Naukluft for two days for hiking.  On our first day we hiked the Olive tree trail and saw kudu, zebras, springbok, and oryx (gemsbok).  When we woke up the second day our campsite was surrounded by a group of curious baboons looking for food.  They ended up snagging our bread sometime during the day even though Ian was close by.  The hike this day was very different from the day before because we were going along a river.  There were a couple of pools that we swam in, lots of baboons hanging out, and towards the end it started to rain (that was the 3^rd time I’ve seen it rain in Africa… and it’s supposed to be rainy season!).  The next couple of days were spent in the sand dunes!  We ended up climbing what might be the biggest dune in the world, Big Daddy, by accident.  The climb was tough, but the views and the run down made it totally worth it.  As you run down you sank into the sand up to your knees!

Mom and baby at Naukluft Mountains

Oryx (Gemsbok) in Sossusvlei

At the top of Big Daddy!

After climbing the dunes and seeing Deadvlei

Heading back to WHK we saw two giraffes !!!

Week 4:

Penguins in Luderitz

Laurel and I hung out in Windhoek for the night and saw The Hobbit at the theatre with a group of other volunteers before heading down to the coastal town of Luderitz.  I have to say, for having to spend Christmas away from home and family, I could not have asked for a better group of people to spend the holidays with.  Luckily Chris and Mayank (the PCVs from our group located in Luderitz) had a rather large flat for a Peace Corps volunteer because we filled it with 18 people!  Most of our time was spent hanging out eating, catching up, eating, playing cards, sightseeing, and eating.  Just how the holidays should be spent!  The weather was amazing the whole time we were there and even though the water was freezing cold we went swimming almost every day.  Mayank hooked us up with a boat tour on a catamaran (minus the sails) where we saw penguins, dolphins, flamingos, seals, and jellyfish.  Another day we went to visit Kolmanskop, a now ghost town where the houses and buildings are being taken over by the dunes.  It used to be a hub for diamond mining until they discovered larger diamonds in larger quantities down in Oranjemund.

The group on Christmas morning

 

Christmas tree with presents

On Christmas Eve while some of us were swimming others created and decorated a palm frond Christmas tree and later that evening we watched the movie Elf with spiced wine.  Christmas morning we did a white elephant gift exchange.  I gave an ice cream bar and received a winter hat (which unfortunately I will definitely need come June/July!).  Everyone was in charge of cooking something so we had a ton of food, but surprisingly all the leftovers were gone by the next day.  The power went out the day before New Year’s Eve and stayed off until about 3:00pm New Year’s Eve day.  We were prepared to go to a neighboring pizzeria that got power back earlier if needed and got candles and marshmallows to make s'mores.  The evening was great and full of dancing :)

It truly was an amazing trip.  I can’t wait for the next one, but am very happy to be back at site.  I hope everyone back home had a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!